Dispite the distractions ... progress is being made

It is almost 11 months since I moved into the flat and finally there is progress on solving the problem of no pressure on the hot water. Now I just need to get the go ahead on converting the loft space into a railway room and small workshop. I've put down some flooring where the 1980's roof trusses are supported by the kitchen and bathroom walls, but to expand the area to perhaps 6 meters square I will need to add some more substantial joists which only need to span 3 meters from the concrete block walls either side to the central wall dividing lounge and bedroom. Do they really need to be 7by2 timber or can I get away with something smaller is the outstanding question. That is as long as the housing association don't turn around and say I can't use the loft at all?

The little problem I suffered on Monday while over at the garage I am using currently as storage has flagged up that I need to do something about access to help and since I have the medalarm IN the flat moving everything here seems the right next step. OK I can't very well silver solder IN the flat, but equally without a water supply the garage is not really suitable either. I am only thinking of the occasional job, such as the small vertical boiler kit I've just picked up to power a steam launch since finished units are somewhat expensive these days, so perhaps I can get away with camping out in the garden when ready to apply some heat.

One problem with kit being remote is remembering just what is there. While sorting things on Monday I found kit which I thought had gone missing during the several moves between storage locations. A lot of which I had already replaced but could have saved the money had I just taken the time to catalogue what WAS in storage. Not as expensive as the loss of the railway models that had been stolen from the storage in Oxford, but as it turned out an unnecessary expense. I have already been pedantic and realised that I simply can't afford to buy replacements at the prices they are going for currently, so I need to take the time to scratch build, and I already have a number of kits on the shelf. I've ordered parts for the Viking diesel to replace the one stolen, and I do have most of the parts for a replacement for the live steam loco. I've ordered some kits for the carriages, but looking at the cost of those and other laser cut parts I thought "laser head on the router table?'. While researching that I found prices had come down, but the cost of just a head was not much less than a complete kit especially when one adds the 'air-assist' pump, so I opted for a Sculpfun S30 Pro and picked up a honeycomb table to go with it. It is only billed to cut 3mm mdf and ply, but with multiple passes will hopefully manage the odd 6mm part in balsa, such as the bulkheads for the steam launch! Even if not, 2 by 3mm glued together is not problem.

What I should perhaps have thought about is also how to drive it, but being quite comfortable with even hand writing gCode I'd not considered that aspect. FreeCAD will quite happily produce paths and I can modify those to include the necessary switches for air and laser, so do I need to pay extra for a licence for LightBurn which seems to be the preferred software to drive the Sculpfun kit? LaserGRBL is free and I've already used i to prove that the laser head is up to the job of cutting 3mm material even if it does not manage the air supply, but both of these are windows packages and I'd prefer to do the design work on my Linux desktop so a little more investigating to do. Such as just what is the gCode command to switch the air supply on and off.

I'll be honest, I had not even thought about the steam launch when I started down the laser path. I was just looking at the prices being charged for the railway stuff, but the plans finally arrived from Hobby's yesterday and straight away I was looking at producing gCode for at least the 3mm parts such as the wheel house. Since the laser only has a 40cm square working area, cutting the deck in one will be a problem. Extensions are available for X and Y and I was considering the 90cm model, but I'm not averse to stitching together multiple passes. It just needs a means of moving the target material a fixed amount each time and is something I've done many time on the Taig mill which only has a 30cm X axis. Most of the time parts can be assembled from multiple small panels anyway so is the extra cost justified.

Time now to catch up with documenting all that I have achieved in the last couple of weeks. The Variable Speed Spindle Mk2 needs all of it's pictures adding and have blown £34 on getting a couple of the smaller 325mm Gates belts as all I have left in stock is the 500mm one's which while normally used with the lathe, are too long for my new setup. Laser printer will need it's own section and I STILL have not reviewed the images I took in May down in London for the next stage of the holls house. Once again too many projects on the go, but then I've nothing much else to do so why not stock up while I can afford to.